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US 10,760,816 B2Granted
HVAC damper system
AssigneeAdemco Inc.
InventorsPavel Marak, Steven L. Wolff, David J. Emmons, Eric Barton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An illustrative damper system includes a damper blade that is configured to be positioned within a duct, such as a bypass duct of an HVAC system. A shaft is in communication with the damper blade, and an actuator or force adjustment mechanism is in communication with the shaft. The actuator or force adjustment mechanism may include a housing and a spring therein, where the spring is in communication with the shaft. The shaft, the damper blade, and the spring may be configured such that the shaft may affect movement of the damper blade about a rotation axis offset from a diametrical axis of the damper blade.
Claims46
A damper system for use in conjunction with a duct, the damper system comprising:
- a rotatable shaft having an axis of rotation;
- a damper blade configured to be positioned within the duct, the damper blade having a center of gravity and is fixed to the rotatable shaft such that the axis of rotation of the rotatable shaft is offset from the center of gravity of the damper blade, the damper blade is rotatable by the rotatable shaft between a closed damper position and an open damper position;
- one or more weights secured to the damper blade such that the center of gravity of the damper blade in combination with the one or more weights is closer to the axis of rotation of the rotatable shaft than the center of gravity of the damper blade by itself;
- a damper actuator operatively coupled to the rotatable shaft and the duct, the damper actuator comprising:
- an actuator housing operatively coupled to the duct;
- a spring disposed within the actuator housing and operatively coupled to the rotatable shaft, the spring supplying a bias force at least part of which is operatively delivered to the rotatable shaft and used to bias the damper blade toward the closed damper position;
- a bias force adjuster operatively coupled to the spring and accessible from outside of the actuator housing, the bias force adjuster usable by a user to manually adjust a bias force setting of the bias force adjuster, wherein the bias force setting is representative of the bias force that is supplied by the spring to the rotatable shaft when the damper blade is in the closed damper position;
- and
- a pressure level indicator positioned at least partially within the actuator housing and visible from outside of the actuator housing to provide an indication of the current bias force setting.
6 more elements
A damper system for use in conjunction with a duct, the damper system comprising:
- a rotatable shaft having an axis of rotation;
- a damper blade configured to be positioned within the duct, the axis of rotation of the rotatable shaft partitions the damper blade into a first part and a second part, wherein the first part of the damper blade has a larger surface area than the second part of the damper blade;
- a weight secured to the second part of the damper blade;
- a damper actuator operatively coupled to the rotatable shaft and the duct, the damper actuator comprising:
- an actuator housing operatively coupled to the duct;
- a spring operatively coupled to the rotatable shaft, the spring supplying a bias force at least part of which is operatively delivered to the rotatable shaft and used to set a crack pressure of the damper system;
- a bias force adjuster operatively coupled to the spring, the bias force adjuster including a rotatable stem that is manually rotatable by a user to adjust a tension on the spring and thus adjust a bias force setting of the bias force adjuster, wherein the bias force setting is representative of the bias force that is delivered to the rotatable shaft to set the crack pressure of the damper system;
- and
- a pressure level indicator positioned at least partially within the actuator housing and visible from outside of the actuator housing to provide an indication of the current bias force setting.
6 more elements
A damper system for use in conjunction with a duct, the damper system
- comprising:
- a damper blade configured to be positioned within the duct;
- a rotatable shaft operatively coupled to the damper blade to affect movement of the damper blade within the duct;
- a damper stop mounted to the duct for preventing the damper blade from rotating past a closed damper position;
- a damper actuator operatively coupled to the rotatable shaft and the duct, the damper actuator comprising:
- an actuator housing operatively coupled to the duct;
- a crack pressure adjuster that is usable by a user to manually adjust a crack pressure setting of the damper actuator independent of a mounting orientation of the damper actuator relative to gravity, wherein the crack pressure setting is representative of an amount of pressure in the duct that is required to initially move the damper blade away from the damper stop toward an open damper position;
- and
- a crack pressure indicator that is visible from outside of the actuator housing that provides an indication of the crack pressure setting of the damper system independent of the mounting orientation of the damper actuator relative to gravity.
6 more elements
A damper actuator for supplying an adjustable bias force to a rotatable damper blade that is positioned in a duct, the damper actuator comprising:
- an actuator housing operatively coupled to the duct;
- a crack pressure adjuster that is usable by a user to manually adjust a crack pressure setting of the damper actuator independent of a mounting orientation of the damper actuator relative to gravity, wherein the crack pressure setting is representative of an amount of pressure in the duct that is required to initially move the rotatable damper blade away from a damper stop at a closed damper position toward an open damper position;
- and
- a crack pressure indicator that is visible from outside of the actuator housing that provides an indication of the current crack pressure setting of the damper actuator independent of the mounting orientation of the damper actuator.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.